TackleAfrica Coaches:
Joe Payne, Neil Peters, Tatyana Dimitrova, Richard Silverton, Stephen Findlay
Project Description
(i) Kabwe
Date: October 2009
For the first 2 weeks of the project, TackleAfrica coaches Joe Payne and Neil Peters visited Kabwe to further develop the TackleAfrica coaching education programme as well as support the coaches who had been trained the previous year. In the long term Tackle Africa hopes to support a group of local coaches of youth teams that were represented at this and last year’s courses.
During the first week of the project Joe and Neil ran a refresher course for some of the coaches that attended last year’s course, focusing on drills that the local coaches had not yet implemented into their coaching activities as well as giving further guidance and support to the drills they were currently using. In the second week, Joe and Neil ran a 3-day coaching course for 25 new coaches who had not attended the previous year. Some coaches from the refresher course also attended to gain further experience. The main focus in this week was delivering the drills from the manual, running HIV education workshops and giving the local coaches opportunities to practice and demonstrate the drills with comprehensive feedback and evaluation from Joe and Neil.
Joe and Neil also facilitated the inaugural meeting of the league for Kabwe, including elections. The rules for the election meant that those from last year’s TackleAfrica course could be voted onto an executive committee, and then they could draw up a constitution and appoint/elect a larger committee to support them.
(ii) Lusaka
Date: October 2009
Following on from the pilot project last year, TackleAfrica coaches Tatyana Dimitrova, Richard Silverton and Stephen Findlay visited Lusaka to work with Breakthrough Sports Academy (BSA).
Established in 2003, its main objective is to introduce young Zambians to sport at the community level and to offer kids a chance to play the sport they appreciate the most. Through some of its programs, BSA incorporates life skills messages – especially in relation to HIV/AIDS – into sports to make the academy an arena for learning and developing as an individual. It is hoped that the development and the hard work that have characterized the early stages of the academy will continue in the future. In addition, through the academy’s outreach programs, children are involved in Community environmental clean ups.
In October 2007, BSA launched the Zambia Street Football Network (ZSFN) along with other TackleAfrica partners Bauleni United Sports Academy, Kalim Sports Council and Grassroot Soccer. The general goal of the national network is to share experiences and lessons learnt in the field of Development through Football. It is hoped that they can better organise exciting sports and recreational activities for children and youth through sustainable networking. The major focus of the network is sharing different experiences and best practices as well as working together on joint projects.
Over a 2-week period the TackleAfrica coaches visited several sites around Lusaka including; Bauleni, Northmeads, Garden Site, and Kalim working with our partners in the ZSFN. The main purpose was to continue the work from the previous year, working with the children and educating them about HIV through our uniquely designed football drills in the TackleAfrica coaching manual.
As well as running coaching sessions, the TackleAfrica coaches were involved in the coordination and running of 3 separate football tournaments during their time in Lusaka with around 300 children taking part. This also provided an opportunity to engage with the children and use the TackleAfrica coaching manual with them. The coaches also spent a considerable amount of time with BSA and the other partners, away from the football pitch running very useful workshops on Budgeting, Finance and IT greatly adding value to our partners and the impact that TackleAfrica can have with them on future projects.
